Kōshin-an

庚申庵

Kōshin-an is a hermitage founded in Kansei 12 (1800), a koshin year, by the haiku poet Kurita Chodo, a central figure in the Iyo haiku world who helped nurture Matsuyama's later reputation as a haiku kingdom and who received two visits from Kobayashi Issa. Modeled on the Genjuan hermitage where Basho lived in Otsu, Shiga, it offers wisteria, spring water, and a mountain-village mood within the city. Built as a retreat amid the town for unpretentious haikai, it omits a tokonoma alcove and upper seat so participants meet as equals, and its east-west open two-tatami room lets breezes pass.